Lifestyles

The Power to Choose

Published 1 year ago1y ago • Bookmarks: 99

April 2, 2023

Vote with your wallet and go with a 100% renewable energy supplier – if you can afford to

By Krista Madsen –

It’s been my goal since I moved into my current house in 2017 to find a way to reduce my energy bills every year until I hit the magical number: zero, or as close to that as being tied to a utility company allows. I am a spreadsheet junkie, so I’ve been charting my energy use monthly, and then averaging the months annually, with notes in the margins about certain milestones along the way. Good and bad news: I did manage to lower my costs every year…until that went bust this winter when I chose to take a chance on our community’s new default 100% renewable energy plan. However, I’m here to argue that this gamble was still a good one—even if not immediately reflected by the bottom line. It’s a temporary, not fatal, condition that I’m certain will get better if enough of us play along.

Admittedly, my bills started off lower than the national average for a house my size (small) because I’m light on energy usage to begin with. But each year, with additional extra efforts and upgrades, it was consistently getting even lighter than that.

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Before I bought the house, it used to be an illegal two-family—until the former owner tried to sell it and was forced first to rip out a perfectly good shower in the basement (bummer!). I inherited with this a two-meter situation, one for the basement “apartment” of nothing, and one for the upstairs floors. For $1,000-something from an electrician and an abundance of patience in filing forms and waiting for Con Edison, two accounts merged into one. One bill meant less fees and taxes for no reason.

Second, I had an HVAC company come do a free energy assessment through the Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program, more info on that here. I hoped this would involve the guy taking a magic thermal wand and telling me every inch of the drafty house that needed help and then tell me how we were going to seal this old cold house up tight. Instead, I learned I pretty much have no existing insulation and there’s no great way to remedy that, so the best bang for my limited buck would come from spray-insulating the heck out of the attic. This NYSERDA program, should you qualify by income and do the work recommended by the assessment, funds half of the project and offers a really low interest loan for the balance. Worth it!

Third, in 2022 I embarked on a journey to cut off the gas and fully electrify, which I’m charting here bit by bit in these posts. The first installment of my journey through off-gassing charted my installation of an induction stove. Then I replaced my perfectly good gas boiler and water heater with more efficient heat pump tech (I’ll go through this in a future post), and fully cut the gas line, which was super-satisfying and took away another monthly standing chunk of fees and taxes from my utility bill.

But if I’m being a stickler to the bible of this Electrify Everything article I follow, the real step one of my off-gassing journey is more of a marriage, involving something of an open declaration of commitment to the cause.

Author Nate Adams lists this first phase of the journey as the act of signing up for 100% renewable energy:

If you like the idea of electrifying everything, start doing it in your own life. Buying an induction cooktop is actually the second step, albeit the most important one, for eventually ditching your gas meter.

The first step to electrifying everything is to buy renewable electricity. This shows utilities that there is demand for renewable electricity. Yes, you can argue that buying renewable energy credits is just an accounting game, but it’s how markets move: demand creates supply. One phone call can wipe out one-quarter of your carbon footprint, and the market can essentially force renewable portfolio standards to happen.

I’m amazed that more organizations don’t promote buying renewable electricity. It’s essentially free, and it takes less than an hour to set up. All the examples I have found are within 5 percent of dirty electricity prices. Please go buy clean juice. Today.

Just when I was lamenting how hard it is to explore other energy company options in New York and was longing for a simple rate chart, I came upon one from the state. We do have an abundance of choices for our region as this recent article in The Hudson Independent also explored, and I advise residents here to start by putting your zip code into this chart. Dig deeper than the main page since things may initially look better than they are. For instance, when I clicked on the first lowest price that came up for 100% renewable that doesn’t have a cancellation fee (don’t want that!), it’s important to also click on the “Historic pricing” link and see what this rate really has been doing (like being way higher). Yes, you have the “Power to Choose” as goes the motto on this site, but it’s a bit dizzying to have to.

Which brings me to my own feeling of relief and gratitude that we have this other option where we live of a built-in aggregation program. Twenty-nine municipalities in the county are members of nonprofit Sustainable Westchester’s Westchester Power Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program. SW does the legwork for us and negotiates a bulk deal with an alternative energy supplier which they offer up to willing citizens in these participating municipalities, or the unwilling who are free to opt-out. I was in this program for a few years, until the gap when their contract lapsed last year and everyone in it reverted back to Con Edison.

In the fall, as SW was finalizing a new deal with a clean energy supplier, the war in the Ukraine was escalating, the Nord Stream pipelines got blown up, and the prospects for global gas production and access looked bleak. Our regional utility, Con Ed, was warning that energy rates could rise 16% in the new year. The best SW could do in this atmosphere of doom was lock in a two-year fixed rate of 15 cents per kWh from the same Constellation supplier we had before for 100% renewable energy.

Despite these threats of rising rates from Con Ed, the worst it got this winter had I stayed with them would have been about 11 cents per kWh. That four-cent difference for the clean energy option might seem like a minor matter until you do the math and find out it translates to an increase on the supply side of 36%, not to mention you’re still stuck with the standing fees of Con Ed forever-servicing the account, which are typically higher than the supply side of the bill to begin with.

But hold on, now that threat from Con Ed is back again. I just noticed the public statement hearings happening for Con Ed’s proposal to raise their rates over a three year period by an average of 20% for electric and 31% for gas, as they are looking to upgrade their delivery systems. So maybe my default advice before winter still stands—sit tight if you can; you just don’t know what’s coming with this crazy Con Ed!

This was the first winter in my house with my new heat pump system so it was all a bit of a scary experiment to see what would happen to my bill as I tinkered with the dials of my 100% electric systems. I know it all must be more efficient than what I used to have, so maybe even with the higher renewable rates I still cushioned the bill some from my conversion. Had I stayed on gas and stayed with my regular energy, maybe it’d be a wash. Call me a masochist, but I find this pressure of a higher electric bill very motivating and temporary because:

I really believe these costs will come down as more renewable energy projects come online — supply and demand rules the market.
My near-term dreams for my own home involve installing solar panels, and whatever other technology that exists by then to further cut down on my electrical burden. I’m currently saving up to get this done before the trauma of another winter comes.
I enrolled in the (free) GridRewards program, an app which prompts you to cut back on usage on key moments of the day (especially in the summer), possibly amounting in hundreds in annual savings. (My referral link is here if you want to try too – then we’ll both enjoy a $10 bonus if we successfully partake of the savings events). Join me, or check out other reward programs reviewed in another HI article here.

I’ve got tons of I-Love-NY pride, but I’m particularly pleased of late to live in such an energy-progressive state. New York is a national leader in the clean energy movement, and in alignment with the Paris Agreement it passed its ambitious Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) with the goal of 70 by 30, meaning 70% of our power from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% from clean sources by 2040. I was worried the clock is ticking and maybe this is pie-in-the-sky math, but the NYSERDA charts below give me hope that we’re making strides, or have plans to at least. While we only have 27% renewable energy supplies in the state currently, there are another 39% more projects in the planning or development pipeline. Once these are online, there’s only another 4% to go to reach the 70% goal—but that’s assuming things go as planned with the government/energy sectors and everyone does what they say they will…hmmm, so that gives me pause. SW says the volunteer market now comprises the largest part of the state’s renewable energy usage (only a small sliver is from the minimum required from standard energy suppliers). So, we stubborn maniacs of the CCA are now the biggest share of the sustainable energy market, and we are voting with our dollars in exactly the way the earth requires.

The projects in the pipeline lean toward hydropower, as we sit along the Hudson and enjoy the power of Niagara Falls, and wind both on land and offshore. I think some of the burden on the lower Hudson Valley currently has a lot to do with the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear plant, which highlights the need to step it up—pronto—by creating new clean energy sources that meet the obvious interest and demand. The average person isn’t interested in paying more for the benefits of a future cleaner planet, only some of us are, and we need to try to compel others to come along. My principles are bigger than my attachment to my money and I definitely paid the price for that this winter, but I consider this akin to those who value organic food enough to commit to that higher price point for now. The more who do, the more affordable this can all be. And I know most everyone would choose clean energy if it was the same price as the dirty.

All principles aside, what a relief that we made it to spring and the stress of winter heating (or its lack) in my house can subside. I became that parent I grew up with as my children bemoaned the chill and the sub-human temp on our thermostat. I’d tell them to bundle up, we added a space heater to our living room. I wore robes over clothes, hats, even fingerless mittens so I could keep typing. The cat glued itself to my lap. I considered burning things.

We got through it; and may the oracle of the spreadsheet someday reveal the ultimate lesson.